Symbolic Immortality

Decades after its initial publication, "Symbolic Immortality" retains its status as the most comprehensive analysis of the mortuary practices of the Tlingit Indians of southeastern Alaska--or any other indigenous culture of the Northwest Coast. This updated and expanded edition furthers our understanding of the potlatch ( "koo.eex'") as a total social phenomenon, with emotional and religious as well as economic and sociopolitical dimensions. The result is a major contribution to both Northwest Coast ethnology and theoretical literature on the anthropology of death.